Seduction (Curse of the Gods #3)

Bullsen tit.

Shweed.

Tosspot—that was a personal favourite of my mother’s.

Ballbag—another favourite. It’s what she called our town leader when she was sober enough to realise how useless he was. “He’s just a walking ballbag, Willa. No brains.” She wasn’t wrong either: he was the reason I ended up with the Abcurses, when he reassigned my gender and named me Will Knight.

I owe you one, Leader Graham, you ballbag.

Cyrus still hadn’t appeared by this time, so I decided to abandon the mental shouting and try some actual shouting. Maybe he was powerful enough to hear his name on the breeze or something. They could do that, right?

“Cyrus!” It was a tense whisper-shout. “Get down here right now! You need to fix whatever it was you broke!”

I didn’t see the shadow creeping up behind me until it was too late. A low shriek burst from me as a heavy hand landed on my shoulder, and for the third time in as many rotations, I found myself fighting against a darkness that wanted to eat away at my mind.





I came to in a cart. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me? This was beyond a joke now. If I woke up in one more cart, I was going to hack the stupid wooden transport into a million pieces. The disorientation was worse this time; my head was fuzzy and my mouth was dry as though I had been walking through the desert without water for too many sun-cycles.

As I tried to roll over and sit up, my head slammed into the side of the cart, and the pounding behind my eyes increased. As some of the fuzzy cleared, I realised why I’d hit my head in the first place. It looked like I had been tossed into the corner, my back to whomever was controlling the cart.

Hating the vulnerability of not seeing, I rolled away from the side of the cart and clumsily launched myself into a sitting position, spinning around at the same time. A pair of familiar faces were sitting across from me, staring, and as anger built within me, a tinge of red started to flicker on the edge of my vision.

“Don’t you be trying any of that,” Dru said, with a smirk. “Keep whatever messed up freak-show power you have to yourself. I have no problem knocking you out again, but just be aware that you’ve been down for two and a bit sun-cycles, and if you go down for another, you’ll probably die of thirst.”

Over two sun-cycles? Was he for-freaking-real? “Emmy? Evie?” I managed to croak out, understanding why my mouth was dry as the desert.

He shrugged. “Left them with the healer—your friend seemed to have it under control.”

I tried to squelch some of my worry. There was nothing I could do about it right now. I needed to deal with these new pair of ballbags across from me. Even though only one of them had balls.

Karyn grinned as I turned slitted eyes in her direction, trying to kill her with a single look. “Bet you thought you’d seen the last of me when I didn’t show up again.”

I tried to play dumb. “You mean that time I knocked you out and stashed your bleeding body in a laundry cart? With the dirty, old, used up, pee-sheets?”

Gods, it would have been so awesome if they had been peed on.

Karyn’s psycho-nice face disappeared, and she launched herself at me. Dru caught her when she was halfway across the cart, hauling her into his lap. “Baby, you know we can’t anger the gods. You’ve been trying for a long time to get rid of her, this is our best chance. Blesswood is chaos. Her protectors are missing. She keeps blacking out and burning shit down. It’s perfect.”

I chose to focus on the fact that I had been right: I was the one causing all the chaos. Which made sense considering what I was—but I had been learning to control it while I had been with the Abcurses. Now I couldn’t control shit.

I missed them.

The thought hit me so hard and I pushed it deep down. Into the place where my mother’s neglect was. Where my loneliness was. Where my isolation due to a curse which I did not ask for was. I locked the crushing emotions away, striving to keep a clear head.

“So you two have been working together?” I should have known. Dru had beady eyes, definitely evil.

Karyn, who was still melded to Dru like they were the same person, nodded. “Yep, Dru was Plan B, if Elowin and I couldn’t end you.” She tilted her head back and her face softened as she gazed into his eyes. She seemed to be showing her appreciation for him stepping up to the challenge of killing me. After I cleared my throat, she turned back to me with what looked like great reluctance. “He was going to take one for the team and pretend he had an iota of interest in a dirt-dweller like you,” she told me. “He would earn your trust, and then you would follow him wherever he wanted.”

Dru let out a frustrated sigh. “It took much longer than usual because you never do what I think. And you always had those five dumbasses around.”

Dumbasses? He was one to talk. Speaking of, I’d actually been surprised he could talk when we first met. The stringing of words together in coherent sentences seemed beyond him. It felt good to insult him, even if it was only in my head.

“Where are you taking me?”

Karyn’s creepy grin was back again, and I wished there was more space between us. “To a place where you can’t bother us ever again. We won’t have directly killed you. I’ll even let Dru help you out of the cart. All gentlemanly-like, if the gods are watching.” Her laughter was high-pitched and grating. “How are we to know if you can make it back on your own. Maybe someone has before.”

My eyes darted around the cart, trying to determine if I could jump out. The back was fully enclosed, so I had no idea where we were, but I would take my chances. I was faster and stronger, now that I was a beta-sol-dweller, so as I dived toward one of the zippered side panels, I managed to get my hand up under it, wrenching the opening free before either of the sols even moved.

I had half of my body through, wiggling in the small gap, when I felt hands on my legs. Thrusting myself forward, I kicked out with all of my strength. Connecting solidly, I felt the thump and heard the curse, which I ignored to continue freeing myself.

The cart came to a screeching halt. Bullsen could be heard pawing at the ground and making loud snuffing noises. I had just hit the ground and was scrambling to my feet, when three sols appeared.

Dru was very red-faced, his nose already looking swollen. Karyn was standing beside him, and next to her was a girl that I recognised as one of her friends back in Blesswood—she must have been the one who had been driving the cart. I was tensed, crouched low, waiting for them to attack me. Instead, they all exchanged a single happy look, tossed a bag at my feet, and then climbed back into the cart.